Henri de la Rochejaquelein

Henri du Vergier de la Rochejaquelein (30 August 1772-28 January 1794) was a French revolutionary general of the Second Estate who was loyal to the Bourbon monarchy, and held the title of Count de la Rochejaquelein.

Biography
Henri du Vergier was born near the city of Chatillon in the Vendee Department of southern Bretagne (Brittany), and was a member of the Constitutional Guard. In 1792 he fought in the defense of King Louis XVI of France on the 10th of August attack on Tuileries Palace, during the course of which King Louis was captured and later executed.

Vergier refused to apply for the Levee en Masse conscription and instead fought against the First French Republic under the Vendeen insurgency of French royalists. In 1793, he gave the famous order "Friends, if I advance, follow me! If I retreat, kill me! If I die, avenge me!" Despite many victories with a few thousand Vendean peasant rebels, he was eventually defeated at the Battle of Cholet in October 1793, and he continued the guerrilla war alone with only a small band of followers.

Death
Rochejaquelein was defeated on 23 December 1793 at Savenay by Jean-Baptiste Kleber and other Republican generals, and he saved a small force and crossed the Loire. With only a few men left, he continued guerrilla warfare.

He was mortally wounded by a gunshot to the leg in near Nuaille, and was buried on the battlefield. His death was one of the last actions of the Vendee War.